When Karth had finished, Ashi let out a hissing breath. “So now we know what happened to Dah’mir after the battle at the mound.”
Dandra nodded and turned back to Karth. The big man was shaking and staring around at his listless, silent mates. “What did Dah’mir and Vennet expect all of you to do while they were away?” she asked him.
“There are supplies on board-food and water. Dah’mir told some of us to share them out every night.”
“He expected you to survive for four weeks like that?” growled Ashi.
“Four?” Karth glanced up. “Two. They were heading toward something called the Bonetree mound in the depths of the Marches.”
“The journey to the Bonetree mound takes two weeks. Back again is four, three at best,” said Dandra. Karth shook his head.
“They expected the whole trip to take two weeks. The captain can use his dragonmark to call wind’s favor and speed their trip.”
Dandra exchanged a glance with Ashi, then cursed. “Il-Yannah! All the more reason not to wait before we leave Zarash’ak.”
Karth seized her arm like a drowning man might seize a piece of floating wood. “Leave? No, you can’t.” He nodded toward the rest of the crew. “What about them?”
Dandra bit her lip. She had the strength to free one or maybe two others, but then she’d have to rest. Maybe Orshok’s prayers could help free some of the others. It could be done-it had to be done, though Singe and Geth might not like it. “We’ll make sure you’re all freed,” she promised, “but you probably shouldn’t stay around Zarash’ak either.”
“Believe me, we won’t.” He pointed at a half-elf watching them with dark and empty eyes from a corner. Dandra recognized Vennet’s junior officer-during their voyage on Lightning on Water, he had taken over the ship at night, controlling her with his own dragonmark while Vennet slept. “Free Marolis and he can take command. There are provisions in the articles of House Lyrandar-if a crew believes the captain has turned away from the house, they can remove him from power and take the case before the trade ministers of Lyrandar. Lords of the Host have mercy on the men Vennet and Dah’mir took with them, but I don’t think we can wait for their return. With what Marolis and I have seen, we have enough to go before the ministers now.”
Dandra’s eyebrows rose as sudden hope kindled inside her. “Karth, where would you find these ministers?”
“By the articles, we have to go straight to the nearest one or be declared mutineers. The nearest to Zarash’ak would be Dantian d’Lyrandar in Sharn.”
Embers of hope turned into flames. “Sharn?” she asked. A wide smile spread across her face. She doubted if she could have held it back even if she had wanted to. “Karth, do you think you and Marolis could do us a favor?”
Karth spread his hands. “Dandra, you’ve freed us from a nightmare-for you, we’d do anything.”
Even watching Lightning on Water for any signs of trouble, Geth saw nothing until one of the herons tumbled abruptly off the ship and into the water below with a knife sticking out of it. At almost the same moment, Ashi reared up behind another, shearing it in half with the bright blade of her sword before leaping for the next. Dandra was a swift and graceful blur near the stern of the ship as her darting spear transfixed yet another bird.
The startled herons reacted before he could. They flapped into the air with a flurry of greasy black feathers and a chorus of screeches. Ashi vaulted up and cut down a fourth bird as it took flight, but then they were out of reach of her sword.
But not of Dandra’s powers. Geth saw her look up at the whirling flock and thrust out her hand. White flames erupted in a roaring gout to engulf another five of the remaining heron. Ashes and embers fell like hot rain.
In only moments, just three of Dah’mir’s weird birds remained, two beating hard for the safety of the sky, one-its feathers smoking-tumbling down to the dock. Dandra’s fingers tracked the climbing birds. Two bright, fiery bolts streaked up and caught them, blasting them out of the air.
The heron that had tumbled to the dock, however, righted itself and landed on its feet. Green eyes looked up to watch the destruction of the last of its flock. Geth saw the bird turn its head as if surveying the dock, then with an uncanny intelligence strut toward the nearest sheltering nook.
Chain wasn’t going anywhere. Geth released his grasp on the bounty hunter, sprang out from behind the crates, and pounced on the heron. It screeched and struck at him with its beak-the shifter snarled and snatched back a bleeding hand, but got his other fist around the heron’s skinny neck and squeezed. Long thin legs thrashed. Geth clenched his injured hand on the bird’s neck as well and wrenched hard. Bones cracked. The bird went limp.
Across the dock, people were staring at Dandra’s display of power. Geth rushed to Lightning on Water’s gangplank. “Ashi! Dandra!” he shouted. “What’s going on?”
Dandra appeared at the ship’s rail. Her eyes widened slightly at the heron in Geth’s hand. He held it up and shook it at her. “What are you doing?”
“We’ve found our passage to Sharn!” Dandra called back. She slapped the rail.
“We’re taking Vennet’s own ship?” Geth bared his teeth in a grin. “Grandfather Rat, that’s justice! Singe is going to soil himself.”
He dashed back to the crates and to Chain. The bounty hunter had staggered and fallen without his support. He was sprawled in the shadow of the crates, limp as one of the dead herons, Bava’s cloak a puddle around him. Geth wrapped his arms under Chain’s and hauled him to his feet. There was a long bloody scratch on one of the big man’s hands. A piece of wire that had bound a crate twisted out-Chain must have fallen against it as he crumpled. Geth snorted. “I hope Vennet didn’t pay you in advance,” he told the drugged man.
“I’m zhe besht …” slurred Chain. “Zhe besht! Don’ fuhget it.”
“Well, the best is going for a trip.” Geth guided him to Lightning on Water. Ashi was waiting for him and between the two of them they wrestled Chain up the gangplank.
As he stepped onto the deck of the ship, Geth felt a flush of triumph sweep through him. It felt very good, he thought, to be one step up on Dah’mir.
CHAPTER 7
The sun was setting as the river boat rounded a final bend and Vennet saw the mound rising up against the orange sky. After days of following the river through marshes flatter than a calm ocean, its rounded height seemed nearly mountainous.
Seated at the center of the boat, Dah’mir pointed to shallows beneath a path cut in the rising riverbank. “Put in there.”
The men Vennet had picked from his crew dipped their oars and made for the shallows, giving the boat just enough speed that she came gliding gently to a stop and kissed the bank like a lover. Two men hopped overboard and tied the boat to a worn post driven into the ground. Others began unloading their gear and supplies. Dah’mir gave a short whistle to the two herons that stood beside him in the boat and the birds flapped into the sky, joining the dozen or so other herons that had followed them from Zarash’ak. All of the birds whirled down to settle in along the riverbank.
Vennet scanned the bank above. It was empty. “Where’s the Bonetree clan? I would have thought they’d come to investigate a boat tying up in their territory.”
“The herons have seen them, captain,” said Dah’mir, “and they’ve seen the herons. They know I’ve returned.”
Vennet looked at the priest. “But they haven’t come to greet you?”
Dah’mir didn’t answer him. Vennet clenched his teeth. The journey up river had gone quickly, but more than ever the half-elf was certain that the green-eyed man was keeping something from him. They were so close to the mound and to his promised reward, though, that there was little he could do but trust him.